Nature

Brave Tour Guide Films 20 Foot Long Anaconda As It Sheds Its Skin In River

This is the moment a 20-foot-long anaconda is filmed shedding its skin underwater by a brave tour guide who had gone snorkelling in a river.

Tour guide Vilmar de Oliveira Teixeira filmed the remarkable footage in the river in the Brazilian municipality of Bonito on the morning of Friday, 6th August.

Vilmar was snorkelling in the river when he spotted the six-metre- (20-ft-) long snake under the water’s surface just at the moment it was shedding its skin.

As he is accustomed to seeing numerous animals as part of his job, he was not scared off by the giant snake, and decided to stick around and film it instead.

He said: “I always go out with the expectation of filming some cool footage and this time, everything conspired in favour of this incredible recording.”

Vilmar hopes his clip will help with conservation efforts involving anacondas. He said: “I believe that when people see animals like this one, with incredible footage, they will think twice before doing them harm.”

Juliana Terra, who holds a doctorate in ecology from the University of Sao Paulo, explained why the anaconda was seen shedding its skin underwater.

She said: “They use the friction of their bodies against rough surfaces like stones, branches, tree roots, even the riverbed or the ground, depending on where they are, to gradually loosen their old skin.”

She said that during the Brazilian winter, it is quite common to see anacondas, as they seek sunlight to keep warm, as they cannot produce heat metabolically.

There are four species of anaconda, which are found in tropical South America. The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) is the largest snake in the world by weight, and the second-longest.

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